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Not if Milton street has anything to say about it.

The problem isn't in either of your opinions regarding what is right or wrong or whether people should be catered to or cut off. The fact of the matter is that there is no concrete reason why in-character things should have to be telegraphed in any way. A special attack shouldn't have to be telegraphed any more than a normal one, and even though a jab is relatively light and fast so is a thrust with a bladed weapon but the difference in overall impact on a fight between the two is massive.

The major difference, ideologically, falls in that when someone does a fast thrust with a blade they usually tend to be wielding the blade to start with so that there is a visible cue of the danger that a character can react to. Now, this doesn't necessarily have to be the case if you're talking about hidden weapons and trick attacks and things like that... it's an entire facet of a certain playstyle.

MECHANICALLY, however, there is an issue that everyone needs to concern themselves with regardless of their stance on the issue and that is this:

You cannot, in good conscience, have a sword that bursts into flames when it hits and not mention that fact until after it hits. The reason for this being a simple logistical issue that I will describe as follows:

Person A: Swings with sword.
Person B: Takes a shallow wound from sword, counterattacks.
Person A: "When the sword touches you, it bursts into flames."
Person B: Has to make an entirely new post to reflect this new information, making the entire previous post pointless even though Person A didn't actually DO anything.

All of the pertinent information for receiving an attack should be in the initial attack. If the sword bursts into flame when it hits, but has no outward indicator that this will happen until it happens... then put it in the post. "If it connected, Person B would find much to his surprise that the weapon burst into flame just as it touched him." This way Person B can respond to the entire attack without having to split a reaction up between 2-3 different posts.

If you hide something from the other player OOC, you're effectively telling them "I don't trust you not to metagame, so I'm not going to tell you what will happen if you take this hit until after you take this hit".

This should (and I mean should since my last revision to HoH rules is the only ruleset I know about that actually called people out on this) be something people are aware of as being a problem - that people should not be able to wait until after a hit is confirmed and then decide, after the fact, to apply additional on-hit effects. All of that information should be handed out up-front.

Mechanically speaking.

In-character, you don't know what the ******** is happening until it happens.

Person A: *Punches.*
Person B: *Punches back.*
Person A: *Walks away.*
Person B: "Running away?"
Person A: "...you are already dead. ((2 posts ago I used Hokuto Shinken, your time is up.))"

There is a pretty defined difference between:

1. My character throws a punch that is charged with XYZ effect, so that if it hits there will be the additional effect as soon as it hits.

(( In this situation, you have everything declared up front so the person responding can include all the pertinent details in their post. ))

2. My character uses X amount of RESOURCE POOL to throw an enhanced punch that will have an additional effect when it hits. If the punch misses the resource is wasted.

(( In this situation, you're declaring your intent off the bat to use a power and can't wait until after you have a confirmed hit to spend the resource. ))

3. My character strikes you with a punch. As soon as it lands, I will use XYZ ability to apply an additional effect to the attack with no warning.

(( In this situation, there is no in-character warning of the bonus effect but the player is still made aware of the intended damaging effects of the attack so that they can write their response. ))

4. My character struck you last round with a punch. You didn't know it at the time, but you are now paralyzed and can't move.

(( In this situation, you're saying "now I know you spent all that time writing a response but go ******** yourself, I'm stopping you from doing everything without actually doing anything". This is also one method of 'running the clock' when dealing with things that have post-duration cooldowns, etc. ))

5. My character struck you last round with a punch. Rather than pulling my hand back immediately, it lingers for half a second and applies XYZ touch-based ability.

(( In this situation, you're adding another action to the attack after the attack resolves. This is SIMILAR but not THE SAME as the above. The key difference being that the second effect doesn't happen immediately and simultaneously with the first attack, but is something that happens a short time after. I still wouldn't recommend going with this because at this point you're basically going into TIME COMPRESSION mode and micromanaging fractions of a second per post. ))






Rambling!

I used to be of the 'SURPRISE BUTTSECKS' school of thought because of the way that EVERYONE here metagames.

Everyone. Without exception. I don't care if you deny it, or swear up and down that you are Jobber McJobpants, or w/e, every person I have ever fought, or seen fight metagames something fierce. Not restricted to fights, either. Casual RPs, tavern RPs, even freaking romance RPs. Everywhere, all the time.

But I've found that it's not worth the headache to have both you and the opponent constantly adjusting your actions to something that presumably already transpired, nor does it make for a good read.

Instead, the whole spiel reads like a NO U turned to 11, and while it might be good for a laugh, that's about the worst kind of RP it is possible to do short of underage furry ERP in PMs.

I wanted to enter a rogue with a stealth/poison mechanic so bad, but this topic of metagaming was the main reason I could never get anywhere with it in planning because the idea of not being able to use a kit because someone else can't play fairly...Made me sad.

I wanna do a 4e campaign. I'm like the only one who wants to do 4e...

Are you on MSN/AIM?